U.K. Looks Ahead To F-35 Carrier Ops

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U.K. Looks Ahead To F-35 Carrier Ops
By Tony Osborne
Source: Aviation Week & Space Technology

April 29, 2013
Credit: Lockheed MartinTony Osborne Warton, England

The U.K. is using simulation to form a vision of how the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will be used on the country's two new planned aircraft carriers.

With both the aircraft and the carriers still under construction and more than half a decade before the two actually meet for real, BAE Systems has been working to understand how the two systems will come together, not only learning lessons while preparing for the aircraft's scheduled entry into service at the end of the decade, but also influencing the methods used by other F-35B customers including the U.S. Marine Corps.

Test pilots originally used the simulator, located at BAE Systems' Warton facility in Lancashire.... go back to the short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing F-35B in May 2012 resulted in major upheaval in the development process. “It took about two or three months to turn it around......

Simulator experiments have proven the validity of the deck parking layout for the aircraft. ....Initial experiments showed that at certain angles of parking on the port side, pilots on approach would adjust and push the aircraft to the right and closer to the ship's islands. However, by parking aircraft at a more acute angle to the stern of the ship, pilots were more comfortable touching down on the centerline.

The ships will also make use of a Bedford Array,...On the pilot's head-up display is a new ship-reference velocity vector. By maneuvering the aircraft and the vector onto the Bedford Array, the pilot can comfortably make a 6-deg. glideslope landing using the Shipborne Rolling Vertical Landing (SRVL) method.

“With a 60-knot SRVL, the bring- back capability is significant,” said Wilson. “With vertical landings, ...More often than not we are seeing 1,000-pound or 500-pound weapons being used.”

Wilson said the SRVL work was also influencing how the Marine Corps may also use their F-35Bs on larger vessels such as the U.S. Navy's big-deck nuclear carriers. ...

“The B model offers huge flexibility,” said Wilson. “The U.S. Navy has 10 large-deck carriers capable of delivering first-day strike, with the F-35B operating from LHDs [landing helicopter dockships], you have then got 20 carriers capable of doing that, and that's a very different concept.”

Wilson says the choice of the F-35B for the U.K. is significant mainly because the training burden is substantially reduced, ...During the DT-1 deck trials on the USS Wasp in October 2011, one of the test pilots, ....was cleared to land on the Wasp after conducting 18 vertical landings on ground.

The U.K. is now looking to make its first significant orders for the F-35 with plans for the purchase of 14 aircraft currently winding its way through the Defense Ministry. Those plans will reach the Treasury later this year. The U.K. wants to be able to deliver an initial operating capability from land bases toward the end of 2018 and a full capability, including carrier operations by 2023.

The U.K. has a program for the operation of 138 F-35s,...with just 12 flying from a carrier at one time. A final decision on the number to be procured will not be made until the next Strategic Defense and Security Review, which is due to be undertaken in 2015.

Interesting comment on how the deck aircraft on port side are arranged influenced the pilot centreline adjustment - why would they just not land on the centreline? Perhaps it was more a perception thing and they land on centreline anyway but feel more comfortable with aircraft ranged at a more acute angle - thus creating more space on the left side. I'll put the SRVL bits on the SRVL thread also.

I wouldn't at all be surprised if we see USMC F-35B's cross decking with the QE early in its first deployment.

Corsair1963 wrote:I wouldn't at all be surprised if we see USMC F-35B's cross decking with the QE early in its first deployment.

Yep, and the USN swabbies will be green with envy!

[quote="Corsair1963"]I wouldn't at all be surprised if we see USMC F-35B's cross decking with the QE early in its first deployment.[/quote
And vice-versa.. so who serves the better chow?

popcorn wrote:

Corsair1963 wrote:I wouldn't at all be surprised if we see USMC F-35B's cross decking with the QE early in its first deployment.[/quote
And vice-versa.. so who serves the better chow?

The Brits have liquor in the wardroom, so....

At least we see some old hat LHA F-35B test ops in the video....

VIDEO: The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: the jet 'that almost flies itself' 04 May 2013

"Squadron Leader Frankie Buchler, currently testing Britain's new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in the US, speaks to the Telegraph about the jet "that looks out for its pilot"...."

"...At the American military’s Patuxent River naval air base in Maryland, the Telegraph spoke to Squadron Leader Frankie Buchler, who will one day train British pilots on how to fly the aircraft, about his experiences of flying the new jet."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... tself.html